Injury only makes me stronger, says defiant Owen

At a mere 27, Michael Owen's career already resembles an endurance test. There has been far too much surgery since a broken metatarsal at White Hart Lane on New Year's Eve 2005 was followed by a serious knee injury at the 2006 World Cup and, most recently, the further operations needed because of a double hernia. His priorities are scrutinised as much as his physical condition.

Nearly all that is best in Owen's professional life has taken place at international level. The statistics themselves have even been placing the emphasis on his involvement with England. When he made a comeback last season he did not score until the fifth and last of those appearances, in the Euro 2008 qualifier with Estonia in Tallinn. During the campaign before that half of his 22 matches were with England.

None of that, of course, is intentional. Owen does not choose when to get hurt, but he still suffers because of a pattern that is not of his making. It was discernible even in his youth at Liverpool, where real achievements still fell short of the expectations fostered by the Anfield club's heritage. The idea that his focus was on England must, he appreciates, have originated with that goal as an 18-year-old against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup.

"It was at such an early age," he reflects. "Liverpool were coming fourth or fifth in the league. My room-mate Jamie Carragher, whose family are all Liverpool or Everton fans, in the thick of things in the city, said then: 'Because you made your name with England, people associate you with England. Until you win something with Liverpool they will think you are England's player as opposed to Liverpool's.' That label has probably stuck with me through my career and that's unfortunate."

It took the treble of League Cup, FA Cup and Uefa Cup for the club in 2001 to make him "definitely" feel the "warmth" of the Liverpool supporters. He has, by contrast, been regularly lionised with England. His total of international goals stands at 40 and Bobby Charlton's record of 49 is well within reach. He can almost be envisaged overtaking Jimmy Greaves on 44 in the next week. "It's in the back of my mind but not the forefront," he protests.

He averages four goals for each of his 10 seasons with England and knows that it might only need a couple more years to set a new benchmark for his country. Although his finishing is unlikely to let him down, his body might. "I sat back and watched the first half of [the Euro 2008 qualifiers]," as he puts it, "with itchy feet and a brace around my knee."

The damage, caused at the World Cup, led to a dispute between Newcastle United and the Football Association over compensation, but the forward reports that no acrimony remains at a club that is under new ownership in any case. It must be Owen himself who worries most about his body, but he disagrees that the precocity that saw him score on his Liverpool debut as a 17-year-old means that wear-and-tear is undermining him well before his 30th birthday.

Owen feels that the injuries are normal in player making a comeback and is convinced that durability will return when he puts together a string of matches. "You look at any long-term injuries," he argues, "and as soon as you get 20 games you are fine, you are back. Look at Gary Neville - he had an ankle [problem] for a while, comes back and pulls his thigh. Dean Ashton, [having been] out with a broken ankle, does another little tweak."

He reels off examples, including his former Newcastle team-mate Scott Parker, who has enjoyed a single league game for West Ham United so far. Owen has had far too much leisure time to monitor the situation and to detect the pattern. For him, it is as if a clear period is needed to activate a sort of "immune system" that lets the body cope with knocks. Owen then taps the table to indicate the toughness his muscles can only have once he has appeared in enough matches.

In any case his recovery, so far as he is concerned, has followed the course predicted by the surgeon Dr Ulrike Muschaweck. "It is strange that people ask questions," Owen complained, "when you have a specialist who has done thousands of ops saying I could be back in a matter of a few days. That's exactly what happened, but I still get questions."

There are no scars on his mind: "I don't try to but I just believe things, like [the absences] will make me last longer or make me hungrier. I genuinely believe that the form I've been in since my [pre-season thigh] injury means that in a funny kind of way it was a Godsend that it happened."

Owen does not do it on purpose, but destiny tends to be on the side of Newcastle's £16m purchase from Real Madrid when England need him most.